No Proof

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

NO PROOF

Acts 25:1-7

25:1 Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, 2 where the chief priests and Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. 3 They urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. 4 Festus answered, "Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. 5 Let some of your leaders come with me and press charges against the man there, if he has done anything wrong." 6 After spending eight or ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. 7 When Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.

NIV

So two years have passed and Felix is gone, having never decided the case against Paul. Now Festus is on the scene and once again the chief priests and Jewish leaders are after him to judge the case. But they really are not interested in the case against Paul being judged as we see their real motive is to have Paul killed. This is all a repeat of what we have seen before, but Festus is not going to fall for their scheme and makes them come to him. It is interesting that he tells them to press charges against Paul, if he has done anything wrong. This would imply Festus is approaching this with no bias against Paul. But our life lesson is in the statement about them bringing many serious charges against Paul, which they could not prove. We certainly can apply that truth to gossip. We may all too often talk about other people and what they have said or done without actual prove to verify it is true. But even if it is true, what business is it of ours? We must always remember, if we are not part of the problem or the solution, we should remain silent about the matter. But the real application here is within our own thoughts. Do we think something about another person without being about to prove that which we think is true? That is do we have an opinion about someone, in a critical or judgmental way just because we may not like them. Perhaps jealously or envy play a part in our thinking judgmentally about them, seeing them as something they are not, something we have absolutely no proof of. It is one thing to form an opinion based on facts, but we should not if there are not facts, in fact it isn’t even Christ-like to form any negative opinion about someone for that would be against the law of love. We need to be ever vigilant against thoughts or words that are aimed at another person, especially when we have no proof for them. Even if another person has offended us, we have no right to bring charges against them to others, but we should go directly to that person privately and resolve the matter, doing so not as the chief priests did with Paul, as thinking they were right, and his was wrong, but as equals and humbly restoring fellowship.